6_19 Asia-Pacific Broadcast (Toxic Sites, Bird Flu Maps and More)

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Today’s Top Story is the “Poisoned Poor.” The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution released a new analysis of World Health Organization data that points to pollution as the largest factor in disease and death in the developing world, killing more than 8.4 million people each year. Pollution causes almost three times more deaths than malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined.

As you can see from this world map from the Toxic Sites Identification Program, many of the world’s toxic hotspots are located in the Asia-Pacific region. The alliance and its proponents hope that a better understanding of pollutions’ effects, and not just on the diseases that it causes, will lead to stronger action from these geographical areas as well as more help from the wealthier countries with fewer problems.

That was today’s Top Story. I’ll be back with more news after this brief message.

Toshiba, the contractor in charge of the initial cleanup work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in Japan, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, expect to sign a formal agreement to deploy a new technology that experts believe will yield 3D images of the wrecked reactor cores, even when 10 feet of concrete and steel are in the way.

Development of a centralized forestry map for Indonesia is barely progressing as conflicting land claims and usage data cause problems between communities and businesses, stalling the country’s efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. Disparate maps used by different ministries and levels of government have made data on forest cover unreliable in a country where more than two thirds of land is purportedly forested.

The “danger zones” in Asia that are vulnerable to a deadly bird flu have been mapped by scientists. The H7N9 virus has infected 433 people, mostly in China, and has killed 62. The study, published in Nature Communications, showed that parts of Bangladesh, India and Vietnam could easily sustain the virus.

China’s meteorological satellite Fengyun-3C was recently put into operation for multispectral, quantitative and 3D observation of global atmosphere and geophysical factors to provide better observation data for monitoring disasters and the environment as well as addressing climate change.

And here are clips of an interesting video from Gujarat, India’s Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics, previously known and easier for me to pronounce as the Remote Sensing and Communication Center:

In industry headlines, AAM and JTRS Registered Surveyor completed the data-acquisition phase for Singapore Land Authority’s vision to create a World’s Best Practice 3D Map, extending the map into three dimensions by including height to create photorealistic building models of Singapore’s urban areas.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau chose a subsidiary of Fugro to undertake the detailed underwater mapping of the seaflor in the next phase of the effort to discover Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Tianjin Institute of Surveying and Mapping purchased a 3D modeling solution from VisionMap and Acute3D.

And here’s today’s Final Thought: As you can see from this broadcast, there are many problems in our world stressed by large populations of people. From the “poisoned poor” mentioned at the beginning to nuclear radiation to bird flu to deforestation and climate concerns, there’s no shortage of ongoing calamity. And while the world has been fixated on a missing plane, that tragedy pales in comparison to ongoing calamities that receive much less attention.

Yes, it’s nice to see geospatial technology having a hand in remediating or at least publicizing these matters, but we as people need to see the forest through the trees, sometimes literally, and not ignore the “less fascinating” problems that affect a much larger amount of people, every day.

That’s it for this broadcast. I’m Todd Danielson, and this … was your GeoSpatial Stream.